Stan woke up to the faraway sound of an annoying alarm. Instinctively, he reached out and started looking for his phone to snooze it. Said phone was nowhere to be found. Then in an instant, the alarm magically stopped.
He managed to open one eye and saw his wife Nia with his phone.
"You should sleep in a bit."
Stan blinked and looked at his wife of 20 years. She was looking out the window and knotting the bed cover.
"Is it promotion day already?"
She turned and gave him a weak smile.
"Yes, the day of disappointment as I like to call it but this year I'm hoping against hope."
That's the spirit, hon."
Stan took his phone from her gently and sure enough there were three missed calls and five messages from his boss.
After his wife had left the room, he massaged his temples a bit. Like a schoolchild, he wanted to make an excuse and not go to office because a bully was waiting for him.
He went to the kitchen and reached out for his mug. It was already full of juice.
"Where's my coffee?" he asked.
"Sometimes you should shock your system with something healthy." His wife said looking over her own steaming mug.
The juice felt jarring in his stomach. He smiled ruefully and waited to carpool with his wife. They'd worked in the same building for the last one year.
Their silent commute was broken by another round of missed calls from Stan's boss.
After dropping off his wife at the entrance, Stan sat behind the wheel of his car, willing himself not to cry, reminding himself that he is an adult.
His boss was waiting at the entrance.
"Are you deaf? Has your phone stopped working? We were in the middle of a crisis and you were incommunicado."
Stan wondered what crisis befell them on a Sunday.
"What happened Ron?"
"The Japanese buyers think the quote does not have the correct conversion pricing."
"Ron, the pricing chart was attached in the tender and you could have easily referred to it yourself too."
"You should have mentioned it! I'm not going to do your job for you! You've been talking back after performing so badly. I have no idea why we keep you around."
"Because everyone who works with you quits within a week." Stan muttered.
"I've been so stressed, get me breakfast." Ron commanded.
Stan dragged his feet to the nearest cafe. He had a degree in business, he shouldn't have to take it from some guy hired because his brother-in-law is the CEO. But the post-COVID economy offered few job prospects.
He was contemplating staying a bit longer with the bagel and coffee when he heard Ron literally breathing down his neck.
"I wanted to check if you were sowing my breakfast and waiting for it to ripen! It's been ages. Why are you so slow? People like you should quit."
"You're right." said a voice behind Ron. It was Nia.
Nia came to Stan, took his phone, and began typing furiously.
"Stan just sent his resignation letter."
Nia took Stan by the hand.
"B-but our mortgages? the car loan?" Stan stammered.
Nia smiled "I got promoted. Don't think I haven't been noticing how depressed you've been. I wanted to get that raise so you could quit!"